Free Nokia Lumia 900’s for everyone: PR or great customer service?

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Last month Nokia launched a new Windows Phone, the Nokia Lumia 900. While received well from a general standpoint, a serious bug was quickly discovered: many phones “were often unable to send or receive data over AT&T’s cellular network”.

Before anything else, I’ll give Nokia credit for acknowledging the issue very quickly. Too many companies (coughapplecough) try to hide issues or simply don’t respond to them (coughrimcough).

Nokia also announced that any customer affected by the bug will receive a $100 credit on his or her AT&T bill, making the Lumia 900 free. Going one unprecedented step further, Nokia has offered the $100 credit to unaffected Lumia 900 users as well, and even to customers who haven’t yet purchased the phone — the credit will be available to anyone who buys a Lumia 900 through April 21st.

I’m really torn here. Is this Nokia providing some really fantastic, empathetic customer service? Or is this simply them trying to save their big product launch by paying off early adopters and complainers?

Probably the most important key to providing top-notch customer support is empathy. What better way to empathize than to acknowledge and to accept responsibility when your customer has been let down? You guessed it: apologizing.

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